Aryan Khan, son of Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan, was on Thursday granted bail by the Bombay High Court, 25 days after his arrest by the NCB in the case of seizure of banned drugs aboard a cruise ship off the Mumbai coast earlier this month, a drugs bust that triggered a series of controversies and put the central agency and its officials under the spotlight.
However, Aryan Khan is not likely to walk out of the Arthur Road jail, where he is currently lodged under judicial custody, immediately as the court is yet to give its operative order on the conditions imposed while granting bail.
A single bench of Justice N W Sambre also granted bail to his co-accused Arbaaz Merchant and Munmun Dhamecha.
“All three applications are allowed. I will pass detailed orders by tomorrow evening,” Justice Sambre said even as Aryan Khan’s counsel Mukul Rohatgi was putting forth his arguments.
Aryan Khan’s advocates then sought permission to submit cash bail to which the court refused and said surety is to be given. Hearing on their bail applications started on Tuesday.
“I could have given the order tomorrow also. But I gave it today,” Justice Sambre said. The legal team of the 23-year-old Aryan Khan will now try to complete the formalities for his release by Friday or Saturday.
Justice Sambre said he would pass a detailed order assigning reasons later.
Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Anil Singh, appearing for the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), commenced his arguments at 2.58 pm and completed the same a little after 4.10 pm. After the NCB, Rohatgi, a former Attorney General, started his rejoinder arguments which went on for about 15 minutes.
His arguments were cut short abruptly by Justice Sambre, who tossed the case related papers towards his staff and said, “All three applications are allowed.”
This led to a scramble in the courtroom among media persons and lawyers to exit the room. While hearing the NCB’s arguments, Justice Sambre sought to know on what basis the anti-drug agency was saying that Aryan Khan had dealt with commercial quantity of drugs. To this, Singh said Aryan Khan had made an attempt to deal with commercial quantity.
“WhatsApp chats show this. The NCB has also obtained a certificate under section 65B of the Indian Evidence Act to authenticate that the electronic evidence has been collected from the accused’s phone,” he said.
